An Artist a Week: Sølve Sundsbø

Norweighan photographer Sølve Sundsbø says if he has a style, that it’s that he has no single style at all. His work in fashion photography uses many techniques, including X-rays, 3D scanning, and painstaking hand-painted retouching. Many of his pieces look as if they have been digitally altered, when in reality Sundsbø favors more classical photography methods and rails against the notion that any photo can just be edited in Photoshop to be good.

Many of his pieces are concept pieces, wildly more creative than the majority of fashion photography today. He focuses on the feeling and manifestation of an image, and this manifests itself in beautiful, rich photosets.

What enamored me to his photography was the incredible use of movement that Sundsbø utilizes in many of his pieces. Fluid cloth, bouncing hair, windy days, and humans in action (often dance) make for stunning photos full of movement.

In addition, his use of color and lighting is impeccable. He sculpts shadows and highlights beautifully and the saturation of color is to die for.

These color schemes can be the lightest, most delicate pastels or the richest, darkest saturations of color that I’ve ever seen in photos. The contrasts are incredible and every photo is a piece of art as much as it is a statement of fashion.

Being such a skilled photographer, Sundsbø also is great at using the environment around his subject, using clever lines and contrast and subjects arranged in striking ways.

His editing techniques are also striking, including when two photos are cleverly overlaid.

All in all, what I love about Sundsbø is that all his photos are a surprise. Each piece is striking and interesting and unique, much like one would hope the fashion he captures would be.